A friend of a friend recently mentioned that an ancestor of his had run a restaurant on Capitol Hill. He was wondering where, exactly, it had been. A little research later, I am able to answer that question in probably far more detail than he ever expected –or wanted.
Julius Egloff was born in Switzerland in 1864. Twenty years later, he emigrated to the United States, landing in Washington, where he had family. At first, he worked as a butcher, but when his brother committed suicide in 1886, apparently despondent over the death of his only child, Julius took over the restaurant located at 901 A St NE.
The records of the time do not state what style of restaurant it was. Egloff did have issues with getting a liquor license, being repeatedly denied until finally receiving one in 1890. In the meantime, he had married Anna Weingart, who hailed from Germany. The same year that Egloff finally was given permission to sell alcohol also was the year he became a US citizen.
Egloff lived a quiet life, managing to stay out of the newspapers entirely except for repeated mentions of his membership and activities in the Gruetli-Verein, a club dedicated to upholding the traditions of his native Switzerland, as well as other Swiss-related societies and a number of masonic temples.
The one time he did come to the attention of the newspapers of the day was during a rather disturbing incident, city-wide. As part of the celebrations for the second inauguration of William McKinley (pic) in 1901, a number of regiments of Pennsylvania soldiers came to Washington to march in the parade. This was a long-standing tradition, but this year, things spun out of control. As crowds headed to the Mall to view the fireworks, a number of the soldiers began harassing those around them, going as far as to stretching a rope across the road and forcing others to jump over the rope. Across the city, soldiers were reported to have taken “liquor and cigars … destroyed showcases, glassware and other property,” according to the Washington Evening Star of March 9 of that year. The saloons visited by the soldiers, “presented the appearance of having been visited by a cyclone.” Some of the reported losses due to marauding troops included “two dozen bottles of whisky” taken from Egloff’s saloon.
View of the fireworks honoring McKinley’s inauguration, from the March 6, 1901 Washington Evening Star (LOC)
Egloff later took over the running of another family saloon at 3rd and B Streets, SE (now Independence Avenue,) leaving Martin Roth to run his place at 901 A NE. Both ran into trouble in 1914, when they attempted to move their liquor license to different premises (in Roth’s case to East Capitol Street, while Egloff wanted to move to Pennsylvania Avenue) These changes were fought by the temperance movement, which was gaining power at the time.
Egloff seems to have been retired from the day-to-day operation by this time, in the 1910 census, he is listed as living from his “own income.” He was far from inactive, however, joining the board of directors of the People’s Commercial and Savings Bank, which opened in November, 1920, at 9th and East Capitol. Shortly before this, he had married again, and his first child, Julius jr, was born in 1921. Over the next few years, two more children joined the brood at 118 Tennessee Avenue NE.
Sadly, the new-found domestic bliss was not to last very long. On September 8, 1932, Egloff died at age 68. He left behind his widow and three children – and a large number of organizations that he had been part of over the years. The Post published a short obituary which listed, in great detail, all the organizations, while otherwise glossing over his whole life with a simple, “He was in the restaurant business.”